Pumpkin Salad Explosion

You got to love this time of year. Our street is having it's annual 4th of July celebration and the local fireworks show is just a stone throws away from our house so it is a big day. This is also the time of year for another type of fireworks in the form of pumpkin flowers, pumpkin vines and the start of big pumpkins. I wish I had a picture to post of the plant because it has just gotten massive with a nice Christmas tree shape. Unfortunately the camera got dunked when my wife and daughter overturned the canoe last weekend and apparently canons don't do well in lake water.

The pumpkin plant is about 22 feet across right now and 12 feet long with the main running longer every day. I've got a nice female flower out at 11 feet that I've got my eye on. I hope to be able to pollinate her on Friday of next week. I did a soil test yesterday and my ph is high so I added a little bit of sulphur and iron. Having your ph at around 7.0 is important. I'm not going to get my ph that low this year so I've added a little bit of iron because high ph soils have a tendency to make the iron unavailable to the plant.

It is going to be 95 degrees today and tomorrow in Denver so I put a little canopy over the end of the main to help keep it cool. I want to make sure that female flower is in great shape come the end of next week.